What are the disadvantages of being a doctor?

Weirdly enough, this is a surprisingly common question that is asked at medical school interviews. This is because it is a good way for the interviewer to assess whether you understand what it really means to be a doctor. Hence, you will need to have a clear idea of how you might answer this before interview. I would split this answer into two parts: 1 - the actual disadvantages of being a doctor, and 2 - how you genuinely understand these disadvantages yet want to embark on a career in medicine regardless (this will also often be a follow-up question, so answering this early can look quite good). There are a huge number of potential disadvantages of being a doctor: long hours, long degree course with lots of exams, hard work (!), poor pay as a junior doctor, bureaucracy and paperwork, stress, delivering bad news, etc. I would go into one of these in more detail (the long hours one is easy - you can talk about working weekends, Christmas Day, nights, etc.) before leading onto point ‘2’ - why these don’t matter regardless. For example, you understand the long hours… ‘but I understand that disease does not take holidays so this is a necessary part of the job. I also think that the advantages of being a doctor far outweigh the disadvantages - for example, I understand how rewarding working in healthcare could be, and how something such as cheering up a patient on Christmas Day is a good example of how it can be satisfying even in these unsociable hours’. Bonus points if you have volunteered somewhere with really unsociable hours and can use an example here. Always answer as detailed as possible (they want you to ‘think out loud’), end on this positive note (point 2), and answer with a confident smile!